BERLIN (Reuters) – Angela Merkel’s main challenger in next year’s German election said on Monday the chancellor had failed to set out a clear vision for Europe and likened her to a plane pilot who has forgotten to tell her passengers where they will land.

Peer Steinbrueck, a feisty former finance minister who served under Merkel in her first term, was formally nominated on Monday by leaders of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) to take her on in a vote one year from now that is likely to be dominated by the euro crisis.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Next year’s German election just got a lot more interesting.

News on Friday that Peer Steinbrueck, a former finance minister with an acerbic wit, will lead the opposition Social Democrats (SPD) into the 2013 vote will have stirred unease in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s entourage, observers say.

FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) – On a warm summer day on the eve of the Olympic Games, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi stood up at a business conference in London and dropped a bombshell.

“Within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro,” Draghi told the audience in Lancaster House, a grand building in central London, then paused for effect. “And believe me, it will be enough.”

BERLIN, Sept 17 (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel
warned on Monday against rushing to create a new pan-European
bank supervisor under the roof of the ECB, saying it was more
important to put a credible watchdog in place than to meet
Europe’s self-imposed January deadline.

Speaking at her traditional summer news conference in
Berlin, delayed this year to allow the Constitutional Court to
rule first on Europe’s new rescue fund, Merkel also voiced
support for European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi’s
decision to buy the bonds of stricken euro states.